May 4 - Pinery Flea Market opens and Studio Tour continues

The Pinery Flea Market opens for the season today, Sunday, May 4 and runs every weekend until Thanksgiving. Also today, the Grand Bend Studio Tour continues from 12 to 4 p.m. at various sites around town. Get out and enjoy the spring weather!

May 3-4 - Grand Bend Studio Tour

The Grand Bend Studio Tour runs this weekend, featuring 25 artists at venues around town. For more details, visit the Grand Bend Studio Tour website. The show runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, May 3 and from 12 to 4 p.m. Sunday May 4.

Taking pride in the watershed

ABCF Conservation Dinner featured artist David Bannister’s art shows love for the area’s water

ABCF Conservation Dinner
Thursday, April 17 - 5:30 p.m.
South Huron Recreation Centre
Tickets: $50 each
Contact: 519-235-2610, 1-888-286-2610 or info@abca.on.ca

Story and portrait by Casey Lessard
Paintings by David Bannister

“I’ve noticed that water features in my work about 80 per cent of the time,” says David Bannister, “whether it’s the river or a lake scene. I think the quality of the water around here is probably more important to me than I even realize.”
Bannister is the Ausable Bayfield Conservation Foundation’s featured artist for its 19th annual Conservation Dinner to be held April 17.
“It’s an event that supports many different conservation activities,” says ABCA’s Tim Cumming, “including accessible trails, conservation education, fish stocking in the Morrison reservoir, and commemorative woods tree plantings.”
“When I was asked to do this,” Bannister says, “I was really pleased to help out. I’m very attracted to landscapes that involve farmland and water - rivers and things like that. It still strikes a chord with me from my youth being raised on a farm. I think you quite often see the management and the boards of the conservation authorities tend to be farmers. It’s really a way of making sure the land and the farms and the rivers that connect the rural and urban areas are healthy for all concerned. The conservation authority plays a vital role in the environment. They were environmentalists before the rest of us even heard the word.
“Having grown up on a farm, we always felt the water you grew up next to was important to the farm operation. I think it’s important to all of our lives. You realize you have to be stewards of the water, that there are people living downstream, that your livestock may depend on that source of water being relatively clean. You have to keep it free of pollutants, and we’ve all seen what happens when those things fail and the consequences.”
And water continues to be important for his life in Grand Bend.
“People are attracted to the water,” Bannister says. “I can’t imagine not living next to it anymore. In terms of tourism and attracting people to the community, water is a key part of that. The health of that watershed and the lake water is vital to maintaining both a tourism and living environment. As the lake comes increasingly under threat from septic tanks, farm runoff, or high E. coli for whatever reason, it’s important that those of us who already live here do what we can to protect the water and in some cases improve it.
“I keep a sailboat in the cut off the Ausable, and in the summer particularly, six days out of seven I’m on the river at some point. Certainly the quality of the water and the fact that it’s lively and active with fish you can see, it’s a reflection of the water quality for the community and the ability to attract tourism. It’s integral to our lives more than we realize.”
Bannister does a lot of photography in the watershed’s conservation areas, particularly Rock Glen in Arkona. His paintings are heavily influenced by the local environs, including Morning, Ausable, the painting he donated for the dinner’s auction.
“The subject matter is dear to my heart because it’s both the Grand Bend Yacht Club, where I keep my boat in the summer, and the building that the River Road art gallery is in, and those are two areas in my life that are important to me. It’s actually painted from a photograph that I took very early in the morning a number of years ago, and it’s just bathed in a nice warm light. It has a soft yellow feeling about the whole scene.”
The painting is among the many items available at the event, which features a live auction, silent auction, general and special raffles, and door prizes. Seating opens at 5:30 p.m. with dinner at 7 p.m. Cumming says most people arrive early so they can get a good seat. This year’s master of ceremonies will be Scott Miller of A-Channel.
“It’s a lot of fun,” Cumming adds. “The community comes out and it’s a dress-up event, there’s a buzz, an excitement, and it’s a great night all around.”

Bliss-ful Balance

Bliss Studio
Group Exhibition
Opening August 25, 3 p.m.
7617 Riverside Drive, Port Franks
(519) 243-3598
Featured artists: Tony Miller and Lorraine Thomson (studio owners), Stephen Shellenberger, Tamara Croxall, Sarah Kane and Kim Ange
Music by Joani Paige

Story by Casey Lessard

“I’ve been walking around here in my pajamas showing people our work,” says Tony Miller in the studio and gallery he shares with partner Lorraine Thomson. “They show up here and say, ‘Are you open?’ I’m walking around in my housecoat. We’re very low-key. We’ve taken that mystery and snobbishness out of art. We’ve got people walking in here in bikinis and stuff right off the beach.”
The beach is where the artists and former art gallery managers took their first step toward creating their studio in Port Franks. Taking a cue from American mythology professor Joseph Campbell’s “follow your bliss” philosophy, Miller asked Thomson during a vacation in Costa Rica what her bliss would be.
“Her answer was, ‘To live with you, do art and be near the water.’ I said, ‘Let’s do it.’”
The two did not set out to run an art gallery out of their home, but after discovering the former fishery and setting up the Bliss art studio, they decided it would make a great gallery, too. The building was once a stable and barn; now, the upper level is their living space and the lower level is a large open gallery and storage space. Wide open doors let in natural light and the room can easily accommodate a crowd of art lovers.
“A friend of ours told us about it,” Thomson says. “A lot of people who live in the Port said that they considered buying it but it’s an unusual type of property as far as space. I think it just works perfectly for what we’re doing here.”
Outside of her work as an art instructor in local schools, Thomson has used the gallery to teach art classes for children and adults, including a course called ‘Everyone is Born an Artist,’ which has helped many local seniors discover their drawing and painting talents.
Their focus now, however, is giving new artists a place to show their work as they develop.
“It’s hard for young people to break into getting into a gallery,” Thomson says.
“It really is,” Miller adds. “To get your first exhibition is brutally hard. You usually pay the gallery a fee and then it’s 40 percent commission on all the works you sell. We don’t do that. We do take a commission, but we don’t gouge people. The main thing we want to do it show the work. We don’t rely on this for an income. We just love doing art.”
Miller and Thomson also believe in giving customers a chance to test drive art in their homes to see if it fits.
“Take it home,” Miller says. “If you like it, you like it. If you don’t, bring it back. No one leaves here with something they don’t want. That’s a number one rule.”
“A painting or a piece, any piece of art work is a very personal choice,” Thomson adds. “You can only buy art for yourself. Either you connect or you don’t. Our art work isn’t for everybody. We’re not doing high realism. There is a lot of meaning behind our pieces. A lot of emotion and meaning.”
The Port Franks community has welcomed the gallery and its owners with open arms – and a big opening party. “When we came here we weren’t sure if people would accept us,” Miller recalls. “The day before we opened the gallery, there’s a bouquet of roses on our front porch. No card. Then the day we opened there’s a parade of people walking down the street with trays of food. We hadn’t even met them, except for one couple. They all come marching down with trays of food and welcomed us. The River Road Gallery people showed up. They brought us a nice plant. We probably had 150 people our very first day. It was wonderful.
“I guess they accepted us, and they’re happy we’re here. We’ve had a lot of people come by and say, ‘This is what we needed.’”